In business, efficiency has become an essential component of success. Part of being efficient involves obtaining necessary goods/services (e.g., items) as they are needed in an expedient manner. To this extent, as businesses become more computer dependent, many orders/requisitions (i.e., item requests) are made using one or more computer-based applications. Currently, there are typically at least two ways in which an item can be requested. In one scenario, an employee or group of employees will manually issue requests for items that are necessary to perform job functions. Such requests can be for items ranging from stationery and business cards to actual goods (e.g., chemicals) needed for production. In another scenario, an external, non-human system will issue item requests as items are needed. For example, an inventory management system could automatically keep track of items as they are consumed by the organization. As the existing supply of a particular item nears depletion, the inventory management system could issue an item request to replenish the supply.
In handling item requests, an organization will typically implement one or more applications that can receive the item requests from the users and/or the external systems, and interface with the appropriate back-end systems and suppliers to actually obtain the requested items. Unfortunately, as is well known, the processing of item requests is not always flawless. For example, part of processing an item request could involve assigning an approver and particular supplier thereto. In so doing, an appropriate approver or supplier might not be available or known to the system. Moreover, even if an approver and supplier is available, the item request itself could contain data level errors. For example a user issuing an item request could make an inadvertent typographical error when generating the request. This could cause the subsequent processing of that request to fail.
Heretofore, attempts have been made to provide maintenance of item requests received from users or external systems. Unfortunately, existing tools fail to accommodate features such as suppliers suggested by the users for fulfilling the requests, or business justifications offered by the users for approving the requests. Moreover, the existing tools are not generally GWA compliant because they require that multiple browser windows be opened when accessing certain parts of the GUI.
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for an improved system, method and program product for maintaining item requests. To this extent, a need exists for a system that is capable of handling both user-initiated and system-initiated item requests. A further need exists for the system to be able to accommodate suppliers and/or business justifications for the item requests offered by the users. Another need exists for the system to insert any failed system-initiated item request into a failed request queue, and present a view of the queue to an administrator. An additional need exists for an administrator to be able to view and possibly change data corresponding to the item requests. Still yet, a need exists for the system to provide a GUI in which multiple browser windows are not needed.